The Court of Assizes of Taranto sentenced to 22 and 20 years of imprisonment Fabio and Nicola Riva, former owners and administrators of Ilva, among the 47 defendants (44 people and three companies) in the process called Ambiente Svenduto on the environmental pollution produced by the steel plant. They answer by conspiracy to commit a criminal association aimed at the environmental disaster, the poisoning of food substances, the willful omission of precautions in the workplace. The confiscation of the plants has also been ordered, which in the meantime passed first through commissioner management and then acquired by Arcelor Mittal.
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Ilva ruling, the Court of Assizes reads the sentences: 22 and 20 years to Fabio and Nicola Riva, 3 years to Vendola
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The prosecution had asked for 28 years for Fabio Riva and 25 years for Nicola Riva. Three and a half years of imprisonment were inflicted on the former president of the Puglia Region Nichi Vendola. The prosecutors had asked for a 5-year sentence. Vendola is accused of aggravated extortion in competition, as, according to the thesis of the investigators, he would have exerted pressure on the then general manager of Arpa Puglia, Giorgio Assennato, to “soften” the position of the same Agency with regard to the harmful emissions produced by ‘Ilva. Sensible was sentenced to 2 years for aiding and abetting.
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Ilva, the parents of Taranto: “My son is gone but the sentences make him feel less betrayed by the state”
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Vendola: “I rebel against justice that tramples on the truth”
“I rebel against a justice that tramples on the truth. A sentence that affects those who have never taken a penny from the Riva, who have uncovered the factory, who have imposed laws against poisons. I have been silent for 10 years, defending myself in the courtrooms . Now I will not be silent anymore “, Vendola writes in a note after the Environment Sold sentence and the sentence to three and a half years. “The condemnation for me and Assennato a shame, we were not accomplices of the Riva, but those who broke long silences and widespread complicity. I will fight against this carnage of law and truth – writes the former Apulian governor – We will appeal this sentence, too because it represents the umpteenth proof of a deeply sick justice. “
The garrison of mothers and workers
At the reading of the sentence, the environmentalists and the Tarantine parents in garrison from the morning rejoiced. Among others, there are also representatives of the Tamburi Combattenti movement and associations that adhere to the Committee for Health and the Environment (Peacelink, Quartiere Drums Committee, Donne e Futuro per Taranto Libera, Parents Tarantini, LiberiAmo Taranto and Lovely Taranto) . There are about a thousand civil parties. Among these is the municipal councilor Vincenzo Fornaro, a former breeder who suffered the slaughter of about 600 dioxin-contaminated sheep. “It is the day – he observes – in which, after 13 years, those who are right will settle down among a handful of crazy dreamers who continue to imagine a different future”.
Ilva, the farmer who lost his flock to dioxin: “Our battle started 13 years ago”
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The confiscation does not affect production
The confiscation of the plants in the hot area of the former Ilva di Taranto, ordered today by the Court of Assizes in the trial relating to the environmental disaster contested by the Riva management, has no immediate effect on the production and activity of the Taranto iron and steel industry. The confiscation of the plants was requested by the prosecutors, but it will be operational and effective only after the final judgment of the Court of Cassation, while now it is only at the first level of judgment.
The Taranto plants, therefore, remain seized but with the right of use to the current managers of the factory. The Apulian plants are in fact considered strategic for the national economy by a 2012 law also confirmed by the Constitutional Court. By hot area we mean mineral parks, agglomeration, coking plants, blast furnaces and steel mills. It should be noted that in the passage of the plants from the current ownership of Ilva in extraordinary administration to the purchaser, that is the Acciaierie d’Italia company between ArcelorMittal Italia and Invitalia, the release from seizure of the plants is envisaged as a condition precedent. Passage for now placed by May 2022.
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Taranto, traveling in the district invaded by the dust of the former Ilva
